36. The Sweetheart Tree Merry Christmas Bellpull

The Sweetheart Tree Merry Christmas Bellpull

Stitched on 32 count linen

From Just Cross Stitch Christmas Ornament Special 2004

35. Stitchonomy Snowflakes

Stitchonomy Snowflakes

Stitched on 28 count opalescent blue linen

charted for DMC but I used beads and metallic threads

34. Jessica Savage Embrace

Jessica Savage - Embrace

stitched over 1 on 25 count blue evenweave

Published in Cross Stitcher magazine

Finished as a foldable book:

On the reverse, I used the snarky sayings from our work calendar:

The whole thing concertinas up and is secured with a ribbon:

33. Mirabilia 25th Anniversary Cameo

Nora Corbett released this design to celebrate 25 years of cross stitch designing under the Mirabilia name.

Her official name is Portrait of Antique Vines

I chose a piece of hand-dyed 28 count evenweave gifted to me by Mouse.  That meant I didn't need to stitch the background.

I didn't have the flower beads charted so I used clusters of the black beads instead. 

Framed in a charity shop frame painted black

32. Lavender & Lace Enchanted Alphabet

stitched on 32 count Murano in Tigerlily by Sparklies

The chart is called Enchanted Alphabet designed by Marilyn Leavitt-Imblum under the Lavender & Lace label in 1991.  Here is the original cover photo:

I have always liked the alphabet but was not keen on The World's Frilliest Child and her Bunny on a Leash.  Then one day, I hit on the idea of a Spooky Conversion!  I had a large piece of orange hand-dyed fabric from Sparklies which was wide enough if I removed the child and moved the letters closer together.  I decided on a simple conversion of:

every colour = 310

I started the project in July 2016 as part of a SAL to stitch one letter of an alphabet each month.  I kept up with the schedule and completed Z in August 2018.  And that's when the fun started!

Since then I have been adding little motifs from other charts to add to the spookiness.  Here are some close-ups.

The pumpkins, ghosts and cats are all Just Nan designs from her various Hallowe'en charts.

The raven is from a sampler featured in Cross Stitcher magazine.  

To make it fit, I stitched it over one.

The owl is from the same sampler in Cross Stitcher magazine

The white dove from the original design was stitched in black and grey.

The gate is from the Hallowe'en Night design by Jardin Prive I stitched in 2018

I added a little over one owl on top of one of the gateposts

The moon was a photo of the actual moon which I ran through Pic2Pat.

The bats on the left come from a freebie design

and the one on the right comes from the Cross Stitcher Sampler.

The little frogs are Just Nan too.

This is the cover of the Cross Stitcher magazine issue 349 with the sampler by Maria Diaz on the front cover:

I'm really looking forward to getting this one framed ready for Hallowe'en next year.  It measures 20 inches wide by 8 inches tall so it's unlikely I'll be able to get an off-the-shelf frame.

Edit - thanks to a certain pandemic, it took until 2022 to have the piece professionally framed!